The Courts

A federal appeals court has agreed to expedite its consideration of the two cases challenging the legality of Medicaid work requirements after CMS asked that the cases be accelerated.

CMS is seeking an accelerated appeal in the litigation over Medicaid work requirements because, according to the agency, a district judge’s recent rulings that invalidated work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky will cause “significant disruption to the detriment of the states and the federal government.”

CMS on Wednesday (April 10) appealed a pair of judicial decisions that blocked Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky.

House Democrats put Attorney General William Barr on the hot-seat several times Tuesday over the administration’s switch of positions in Texas v. Azar, first in a letter demanding Barr fully explain the reasoning behind the move, provide access to any related documents and make key Justice Department lawyers available for questioning by April 22, and then during Barr’s appearance at an appropriations hearing.

The Republican attorneys general seeking to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act have reversed course and no longer oppose a July oral argument date in the Texas v. Azar appeal now that the Trump administration has agreed the ACA should be scrapped and has requested a hearing for the week of July 8, which suggests DOJ may be taking the reins from the appellees even though the government formally remains an appellant in the high-profile case.

The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration is consulting with the Justice Department on whether to appeal a federal court ruling that shot down key parts of the administration’s final rule expanding access to association health plans.

Health care stakeholders remain fixated on the lawsuit over the Affordable Care Act’s constitutionality as key Republican and Democratic senators urge Attorney General William Barr to explain the Department of Justice’s surprise move to call for the entire health law to be scrapped and as stakeholders file “friend of the court” briefs in the controversial case, Texas v. Azar, which is now on appeal at the Firth Circuit Court.

New York state has filed a lawsuit against opioid makers and distributors and the Sackler family, which founded Purdue Pharma and developed OxyContin, for false and deceptive marketing of opioids that the state alleges helped spur the opioid epidemic, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday (March 28).

The governor of Arkansas said Thursday (March 28) that the state has stopped enforcing its Medicaid work requirements in light of a federal judge’s ruling invalidating the requirements, but he is urging the Trump administration to appeal the decision and remains committed to putting work requirements back into effect.